by: S. M.
Have you ever heard about “The shot heard round the world”? “The shot heard round the world” was the gunshot that had signaled the beginning of the Revolutionary War. “The shot heard round the world” happened in the battle of Lexington which, along with the battle of Concord, hosted the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
Some could say that the way the Patriots prepared for the battle of Lexington was clever. This task required a signal to tell if the British were coming by land or by sea. The signal came from a soldier in a light tower. One flash of light from the light tower meant that the British were coming by land, and two flashes of light meant that they were coming by boat. It also required a couple of men (William Dawes and Paul Revere) to wake the townspeople when the British came. Most townspeople were trained to be something called Minutemen. Minutemen were men that were trained to wake and prepare to fight in a minute or so.
When the time came to fight in the battle of Lexington, nobody actually expected to fight. In the midst of the confusion, a gunshot went off. This gunshot happened to be “The shot heard round the world”, which then sent everybody in the battle into chaos. It was hard to see anything because of the smoke from the muskets. Nobody knows if it was the Patriots who shot the bullet or the British that shot the bullet. For all we know, somebody could have tripped and fell and their gun went off! After eight died and 9 were wounded, the Patriots retreated while the British only had one wounded and none dead.
After that the British marched to Concord to destroy a lot of the Patriots’ weapons and ammunition. Once the British had gotten there, they had met little resistance and had started to search the town for the hidden stash of weapons and ammunition. Right outside of the town were Patriots that were observing what the British were doing. As they waited, more and more Patriots joined them until they had a strong enough force to charge in and fight the British in the battle of Concord. While the British were running back to Boston, the Patriots followed them and gained more forces on the way there. Once both the British and the Patriots were there, the Patriots easily defeated them because of their numbers.
In conclusion, their clever strategies and strong numbers helped win the first few battles and set us off for a great start in the Revolutionary War.